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'Freaks & Geeks' Reunion Likely Happening in Reboot of 'Vacation'

The reboot of National Lampoon's classic road trip comedy Vacation is already in production with Horrible Bosses writing duo Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley making their directing debut. Well, Vulture recently got a change to catch up with Daley, a veteran of the short-lived but beloved series "Freaks & Geeks," and he teased that a reunion of some of the cast members just might be happening in their comedy reboot, which is also a sequel to the original franchise. Daley also opened up a bit about the pressure of a reboot like this with such iconic source material, and it just might get more people on board.

First, when it comes to the "Freaks & Geeks" reunion, Daley has a small, two-line cameo in the film, so he won't have a big part alongside Ed Helms and Christine Applegate. Though Daley didn't think it was smart to give away what his role is, he did make a cool revelation:

"I don't think I can even give away what my role is. I don't know if anyone even knows this yet, but Samm Levine, and it's looking like Martin Starr, will also be in the film. I don't know if they've been confirmed yet in the cast, but it's looking really good. I just wanted a chance to get the three geeks back together, in the same project."

Both Levine and Starr were part of the geeks group in Judd Apatow's revered series from 14 years ago, and getting this trio back together again sounds like fun, even if it's just for a minute or two. Here's hoping this is something that will actually end up on the big screen. As for the film itself, as many know, the original Vacation is one of the more iconic comedies, and Vulture asked if Daley and Goldstein were able to speak with director Harold Ramis before he passed away to get his blessing or even talk about the project at all. Daley explains:

"We never got to. We wanted to get together with him to talk about the project, but he was pretty sick at the time, so unfortunately, we never had that opportunity. This is all hearsay, but when we had finished the first draft of the movie, we heard that John Hughes's wife had read it and supposedly liked it. But that's all hearing it from third parties, so I don't even know if that's true. But I would hope that they would be happy with the sort of tone that we were trying to preserve from the franchise."

And while this is a sequel/reboot, Daley hopes the film will stand on its own merits, and won't be regarded as just a remake of the original film, "It is its own movie in the sense that the times have changed, and it's certainly more R-rated than the first one was, but it's got a lot of allusions to the first, and some of the comedic sensibility is similar. And we didn't want to remake the movie." It's interesting to see a film like this strive for a tie to the original comedy film, while the developing Ghostbusters reboot from director Paul Feig will start things over completely from scratch, with an all-female cast on top of it. Different strokes for different folks, I guess. Anyway, stay tuned as the reboots keep on coming.

Reader Feedback - 3 Comments

1

I like Daley a lot, he was the only reason I ever watched Bones and now that he has left that show I am really hoping he can make a good career for himself. I would like to see him around still in 20 years.